Uncle Rod's Astro Blog

A quiet little spot where Rod Mollise shares his adventures and misadventures...

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Peachy State

I go to a lot of star parties, but, unfortunately, I don’t
get to observe at a lot of star
parties. I’m usually flown in to be a speaker and am scopeless, having to
content myself with looks through my small binoculars and through the
telescopes of kind folks on the observing field. I sometimes feel like a kid with his nose pressed up against the candy store window without a dime in his pocket.

This year’s Peach State Star Gaze would be different. I’d be
their speaker, but the event, which is held at the Deerlick Astronomy Village
about 100 miles east of Atlanta, was close enough that I could drive and could
bring along a truck full of observing gear.
No more squinting through binoculars; I’d have my C8 or C11 with me. I’d
even, I hoped, be able to get some DSLR images for a magazine article I’m writing.

Peach State would be both an old and a new star party for
me. I’d done PSSG several times years and years ago, but those were at its old
sites. The first two years, at the original location near Jackson, Georgia,
just south of Atlanta and well into the outskirts of that megalopolis’ light
dome. Yeah, there was light pollution, but I loved the facilities at Indian Springs State Park, which included decent
cabins and dorms and a large meeting/dining hall. The event was also close to
amenities like restaurants, including the famous Fresh Air Barbecue.

Alas, only fair skies and a field that was bursting
at the seams with observers not only from the big Atlanta Astronomy Club but
from points north, south, east, and west meant that by 2002 the organizers decided Jackson
outlived its usefulness as the PSSG venue .

So, in ‘02, the event moved to Copperhill, Tennessee. That
was a long drive for me, but PSSG had become my spring star party. I had tried
the Mid-South Star Gaze in Mississippi a couple of times, but for several
reasons that hadn’t worked out. This was before I was introduced to the
joys of observing down Chiefland Way at the Chiefland Astronomy Village. If I
wanted to observe under dark skies in the spring, PSSG was still my best bet,
even in Tennessee.

I gave the “new” Peach State a chance; I really did. Once.
Not only was the drive a long one, the skies at the new location, Whitewater
Express, a private resort/camp, were not great, with a light dome from
Chattanooga obvious. The cabins and other facilities were also
rudimentary at best. Some time later, I heard PSSG was moving again, to the
private astronomy development of Deerlick Astronomy Village, “DAV” (much like
the CAV), which would be considerably closer for me. For one reason or another,
however, I never got around to giving the event a try at its new location.

Flash-forward to December 2013 when the good folk of the
Atlanta Astronomy Club had me up to give a presentation at their annual
Christmas dinner. Dorothy and I had a good time, and when one of the club officers
inquired as to whether I might be interested in doing PSSG as their speaker the
following year, I replied, “Coitainly.” Unfortunately, a booking conflict
prevented me from doing the event in 2014, and it began to seem as if I’d never get back to Peach State.

Until I got an email from the AAC’s Peter Macumber this past
summer concerning my availability for the 2015 event. I told him my
schedule was still open for the PSSG dates, that I’d be happy to speak at the event, and was, in fact, looking
forward to trying out the skies of the DAV.

Once the die was cast that I’d go, it hardly seemed any time
at all before summer was dead and it was time to get ready for PSSG, which
would be the first event of the year’s fall star party season for me. First
question I had was “accommodations.” A check with the organizers and a look at
their website and that of the DAV revealed that would potentially be a problem.
Normally, I’d have specified that the star party organizers would have to put
me in a motel, since there are no cabins on the site, but with no hostelry
closer than about 20-miles that I could find, it appeared I’d be camping.

Camping, huh? I was sanguine enough about tent camping to
purchase a tent and the other requisite gear last winter. I had the best of
intentions of saving the money I’d otherwise spend on the substandard motels of
Chiefland, Florida. Tent camping in a good tent wouldn’t be bad, would it?
Well, one night was OK last February, but only one. That night coincided
with some of the coldest weather in Florida in years. I moved to a motel on the
second morning of my stay, and when I couldn’t get a room for the following
evening, I packed up and went home. Yes, I was an astro-wimp.

I hoped the story would be a better one this time. While the
temperatures in Georgia would be slightly chilly, in the 50s the weathermen
believed, I thought that would be bearable with the aid of an electric heater
in the tent. At any rate, I didn’t see an alternative if I wanted to do PSSG.
There had been some talk about putting me up in the home of a DAV resident, but
since I didn’t hear any more about that as the event approached, I assumed it
had turned out not to be an option.

Anyhow, on the appointed morning, Thursday, 15 October, I
said my goodbyes to Dorothy—this would be a solo mission—and headed up I-65.
What was in the back of my 4Runner, Miss Van Pelt? The goal was DSLR imaging , so
I’d packed two scopes most appropriate for that, my Edge 800 Schmidt Cassegrain,
Mrs. Emma Peel, and my Megrez II fluorite refractor, Veronica Lodge. The mount?
My time honored Atlas for a couple of reasons. Looking at the weather forecasts
(which were now, drat it, showing lows into the 40s), it appeared there was the
possibility of some wind and I thought the Atlas would be better in those
conditions than the VX.

I would have chosen my new CGEM over the Atlas, I suppose,
but I don’t have Losmandy D dovetails on either the refractor or the SCT yet. One
more reason? I will soon put the requisite dovetails (or adapters) on the two
shortly, and the eight year old Atlas will probably be going into mothballs.
I might even sell it. In the event I decide to sell it, I thought it would be wise to
give the mount a completely clean bill of health. It had cooperated well in the
backyard, but there’s nothing like a three day star party to expose gremlins.

Three days? Why only three days? I could have been onsite
the previous Sunday, but I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to live in a tent that
long. I can stand almost anything for three days. A week, though? Not so much.
I believed three days would be sufficient to get the one image I really wanted,
a good shot of the Triangulum Galaxy, M33.

The trip up I-65, as I’ve commented before, is an
excruciatingly boring one. It’s enlivened only by a stop at the good old
Stuckey’s just outside Montgomery. Unfortunately and inexplicably, the joint
was locked up tighter than a drum at 9:30 on Thursday morning. Out of business?
I couldn’t tell. Peering in the window, everything appeared normal (it was in
fact open when I stopped on my way home Sunday). I decided this was, perhaps, a
good thing anyway, as I’d have been tempted to order a fried chicken biscuit
from the Dairy Queen side of the house, and I really have had to give up that
sort of thing.

Onward to Montgomery, over to I-85, and into Georgia for the
run to Atlanta. Based on past experience, I was a little apprehensive about
negotiating the Atlanta Bypass, I-285, and getting on I-20 successfully, but GPS
made it easy. Shortly, I was pointed in the direction of Augusta, towards the
exit that would lead me to the tiny town of Sharon, Georgia, the nearest
settlement to the Deerlick Astronomy Village.

While my GPS receiver didn’t know anything about DAV, the
GPS app on my iPhone actually did. I planned to switch to the smart phone once
I neared the site, but it turned out I didn’t need to. I had a print out of the
excellent driving instructions from the star party’s website, and those were
more than sufficient to get me from the Sharon exit to the DAV. In just a few
minutes—the venue is nice and close to the Interstate—I was rolling onto the
PSSG observing field.

One thing I appreciated was that everything was well-marked
with signs. I knew where to park and where to go to register. This is most
assuredly a practice I wish more star parties would adopt. Not everybody is an
old timer at your event, and there’s no excuse for leaving newbies wondering
“Where do I go?”

Thanks to the signage, I was shortly walking into the odd
little cabin/chickie/hut used for registration (I believe it is a warm room the
other 51 weeks of the year), and meeting the kind and friendly people of PSSG including
Peter Macumber, my contact. Registration packet in hand, I set
out to find a place to set up that had access to an electrical outlet. Which
turned out not to be so easy. The star party had been going on for five days, and most of the plugs were spoken for. I finally found a spot
that I thought might work, but just as I was preparing to unload, who should
appear but my old friend, fellow astronomy writer, and deep sky observer
extraordinaire, Rich Jakiel.

Rich’s opinion was that I could do better than camping. He
was staying in the DAV home of a friend and another acquaintance of mine, Dan
Llewellyn, and said he thought it likely that Dan would be happy to put me up
for a few days. That was indeed the case, and I was soon moving my gear into a
real bedroom (my customary travelling companion, The Dark Knight, a suspicious sort, had to
admit things had worked out nicely). In addition to Dan and Rich, Alan Coffelt,
another familiar face was spending the star party at Dan’s. Apparently the
“Three Stooges,” as they call themselves, had been having a rip-roaring time
imaging from Dan’s driveway, and I was happy to join them.

While I’d miss being on the star party field a few hundred
meters away, I thought it was really for the best. I wouldn’t be bothering
visual observers with my laptop and the nature of modern imaging is such that I
knew I’d be able to start a sequence and leave the computer and camera to do
their work without worrying about them while I toured the star party field.

Settled in a comfortable room of Dan’s comfortable digs,
next up was telescope set up. Not having to deal with a tent or even an EZ-Up
canopy made things a lot simpler. Which was good, since daylight was fading fast.
DAV is far west in its time zone, so it takes a while for astronomical twilight
to arrive, but there is no doubt the days are waning now, and I had no time to
lose. First up on Thursday evening would be the Edge 800, Mrs. Peel. I’d do my
narrow field on this evening and my wide field on Friday and/or Saturday, I
thought, depending on how things went. The scope, computer, and camera were
shortly ready to go.

Only minor problem? Since I’d planned to tent-camp, I hadn’t
segregated the astronomy and camping gear. In order to get at the scope and
mount out of the 4Runner, I had to remove the EZ-Up, the tent, and all the other camping stuff from the
vehicle. Not a big deal, however, and certainly easier than setting up the big
Coleman tent and tent canopy would have been.

After spending some time shooting the breeze about astronomy
with the Stooges, I thought I’d check out Mickey’s Kitchen, who was doing food service for the event. I’ve dined with
them before, and knew I could expect above average star party fare. And that
was indeed the case. Sausage, potatoes au gratin, and a big cup of iced tea and
I was happy.

The preliminaries out of the way, it was time for the star
party main course, OBSERVING, or, in my case, imaging with my Canon 400D and
C8. The first night rarely goes as well as I hope. I’m tired after setup, tend to take
shortcuts, and usually don’t get much in the way of results on the first
evening. So it was on this night. Oh, my photos were OK, but not great. The
guiding was sufficient but not perfect.

At first I thought my problem was the new version of PHD
guiding, which I’d only used a time or two previously, but monkeying with its
settings didn’t help. In fact, it made my guiding worse. Luckily, I finally had the sense to stop fooling around and
be satisfied with “good enough” guiding. That was wise since I’d discover on
the following evening that my problems had nothing at all to do with PHD2.

I then just let the scope do its thing. While I’d had every
intention of walking down to the star party field, I had to admit I was too tired
for that. Instead, I spent the remaining hours of Thursday evening watching
Rich, Alan, and Dan image and occasionally checking on my scope/camera/computer.
I was especially interested in what Dan was doing with his C14 and Sony A7S camera.

If you haven’t heard much about the A7S as an
astrophotography tool, believe me, you soon will. Its amazingly noise free HIGH
ISO images are astounding. I watched Dan pull in a perfectly exposed image of
dim NGC 6888, the dim Crescent Nebula in Cygnus, in just 30-seconds. No fooling,
and no guiding required.

After watching the Sony magic for a while, and completing
the last subframes of my M15 sequence, I decided to take a break and retired
inside to watch Dan’s big projection TV for a while. As you might guess,
sitting on the couch watching an old movie (that is how you star party) led to my eyes closing and me dozing. Fortunately, I eventually
roused myself and got back outside to shut down scope and computer and
cover the C8 with her Desert Storm cover. That was the extent of my first
night.

Daytime at a star party can be a challenge for me. Those
hours until darkness just seem to stretch on forever. This Friday at this star
party wasn’t bad in that regard, however. It helps a lot when you’ve got wi-fi,
a big screen TV, and a comfy couch to sit on and can read yourself into a doze
to while away the afternoon. Not that I didn’t spend some time cruising the
PSSG field and looking at the many telescopes assembled there.

What was my takeaway from my tour of the field? Imaging is big again. It
seemed as if every other set up included either an EQ-6 or CGEM. The telescopes
riding on those mounts were a diverse lot, but refractors predominated. Also, it seemed as if a lot of the observers were following my precepts, seeing what they could do with lower tier/mid-level gear. While there were some AP and Bisque
mounts and AP and Tak, OTAs in evidence, they were much outnumbered by the
aforementioned Synta mounts and Explore Scientific and SkyWatcher OTAs. The
cameras? There were genu-wine CCDs, but most people, like me, were using Canon DSLRs.
The software being used for image acquisition was more or less evenly split
between Backyard EOS and Nebulosity.

Didn’t I see anything new? Not really. Well, there were a
couple of mounts that were new to me.
Most interesting, I suppose, was the iOptron CEM60. It is much more impressive
in person than in pictures, and if my CGEM ever self-immolated, I would
certainly consider one. Likewise, the 60’s sister mount, the iEQ45, was more
imposing than I thought it would be. On the bargain side, there was the Bresser
EXOS-2 goto GEM, the second coming of the Meade LXD75.

I don’t mean that the EXOS just looks like the 75, it basically is
the 75. It is made by the owner of Explore Scientific, JOC of Mainland China,
who made the LXD75 for Meade. At a price of $579.99 brand new with an upgraded
hand controller, I’d advise anyone in need of a goto GEM in the CG5 class to
consider it. Its owner seemed pleased with its performance, and while I hear
the firmware still needs a little work, it’s a heck of a lot for little money
and might be just the thing for a cash strapped beginning imager.

After a visit to Mickey’s for a plate of excellent pot roast
and more (unsweetened) tea, it was back to Dan’s to prepare for another night.
The main task was to change out the OTA on the Atlas. Back in her case went the
Edge 800, Emma, and out of her case came the Megrez II, Veronica. You wouldn’t think
that would take long to do, but after rebalancing, remounting the guide scope,
attaching the dew heaters, etc., etc., it was beginning to get seriously dark.

The goal on this evening was to finally, after all these
years, get a convincingly good image of M33, a.k.a. “The Triangulum Galaxy,”
a.k.a. “The Pinwheel Galaxy.” I’ve been trying for this one since the film
days, but my attempts had never really coincided with clear, dark skies and a short
enough focal length to correctly frame the big thing well. I hoped this night would
be different.

I was a little concerned about the guiding problems I’d had
the previous evening, but the solution soon became evident. Looking at the PHD2
video display with fresher, less blurry eyes than on the first night revealed my 50mm guide scope was badly out of focus. I tightened that up,
calibrated PHD2, and good guiding quality immediately returned.

What did I do for the two hours required to get the
sub-frames for the galaxy image (added to the hour I spent getting set up)?
Hung out with my mates, talked with the two young women from CNN who were doing
a report on amateur astronomy and had paid us a visit. Wandered inside to look
at the TV. “Rested my eyes now and then.”

Finally, the laptop emitted the little fanfare that means “I
am done, Rod.” How well done? I knew I was on the right track as the subs were
being taken—after this many years I can tell if the raw images appearing on my
monitor are going to make the grade. Indeed, the next morning, I did a quick
processing job on the pictures and was very pleased. Processing was easy, as it
always is when you’ve got properly exposed subs from a dark, clear sky, and
while I’ll let you judge, I was pretty thrilled with the finished product.

It was hard to believe Saturday was here and it was time for
my presentation, but it was. My talk was “Amateur Astronomy the Old Fashioned
Way,” my paen to visual observing, and I’m happy to say it was very well
received. While this was only the third time I’ve given this one, I’m beginning
to hit my stride with it I think. One thing that helped was that it provided a
good contrast with other presentations this year, which tended to concern
imaging and be tech heavy. More than a few amateurs still like to do their observing the old fashioned way with eye and
eyepiece.

Saturday was also decision time. The trip back to Mobile
would not be punishing, but at just over seven hours, it wouldn’t be short. I
had stacks of papers to grade for my Monday classes, and I really wanted to get
away as early as possible Sunday morning. At first light if possible.

I decided I just had to pack up the scopes Saturday
afternoon. Hated to do it, but I’d gotten (I thought) outstanding images of M33
and of M15, and that was exactly what I’d had on my agenda. Not observing
with my own scopes Saturday night would also allow me to spend an evening on
the PSSG field visiting my fellow amateur astronomers. Finally, the weather,
which had been a little damp but dead clear the past two evenings, was looking
like it would not be as good Saturday with some clouds on the way.

The clouds that drifted through occasionally didn’t help
imagers, but really didn’t hinder the visual folks out on the field much at first. Rich,
me, and Rich’s wife, Sharon, who’d arrived earlier in the day bearing the
makings for a wonderful dinner for our little group, hiked out to the field and
spent quite some time with friendly Dob mavens looking at a variety of objects.
Eventually, however, the clouds began to intrude, even for visual, and the
temperatures to drop (into the mid 40s), and we headed back to Dan’s. I spent
the balance of the night watching Svengoolie, who was showing an old favorite, The Cat and the Canary, just making it
to the end of the film before it was off to dreamland for me.

Next morning, just after first light, I said my goodbyes and
hit the road with mixed emotions. I’d had a great time, sure, but if I’d known
it was going to be this good, I’d darned sure have come up earlier. That’s just
the way it goes in the amateur astronomy game, though, and I have some hopes of
making it back to this great American star party again before another 13 years
elapse.

Nota bene: You can see a whole album of PSSG 2015 pictures on my Facebook page...

Sunday, October 18, 2015

PSSG 2015

Sunday, October 11, 2015

I’m Going to a Star Party

I’m going to a star party,

Baby do you wanna go?

I’m going to a star party,

Baby do you wanna go?

If you can’t make it, baby,

Your sister Lucille says she wants
to go,

And I sure will take her…

It is now fall star party season, and if you are a novice,
at least as far as attending big, organized amateur events, you may be puzzled.
Maybe a little apprehensive. Perhaps even scared. What do you take with you? How do you set up? This is
ground we’ve covered here before, but it’s been a while, and my thoughts on the
subject continue to evolve even after my years and years of star party
attendance.

What to Bring?

Let’s begin with the most important thing, a CHECKLIST. Do you know The Eyepiece Guy? That legendary
amateur astronomer, always the friend of a friend in the club in the next city
over, who travels all the way to the Texas Star Party without his eyepieces? You
don’t want to be that guy. He might be real, or he might just be the stuff of
cautionary tales, but it could
happen. Spend some time making up a checklist so you don’t have to be him. As
you are packing your vehicle, actually check stuff off your checklist after—and only after—it is in the car.

Telescopes

Which brings us to “Which telescope?” A telescope isn’t all
you’ll need, of course, but it is sorta the most important thing if you, unlike
a few folks I encounter at star parties, actually intend to observe, not just
hobnob with your fellow astronomers. Anyhow, the answer to this one is pretty
simple: a telescope that will be effective for the
sort of observing you plan to do.

If you think you want to hunt galaxy groups, don’t convince yourself your 4-inch C102 refractor will be adequate for the task because the skies will be so much better than at home. At a star party you can leave a telescope set up on the field for the whole event, no need to worry about hauling it back in the house when you are done, so use the biggest gun you’ve got if that fits in with your observing program.

Just don’t let that telescope be a new
telescope unless it’s a simple new telescope like a Dobsonian or a refractor
on an unpowered alt-az mount. Most of the amateurs I see having gear trouble at
star parties are those with complicated new scopes/mounts: “I didn’t get a
chance to use it after it came; I figured I’d check it out when we got here.”
Uh-uh. Combine an unfamiliar scope with the excitement and potential stress of
a big star party and the result can be frustration and wasted hours under the stars.

“Telescope”? Just one? Should you do telescopes instead? I’ve occasionally brought more than one instrument to an event. Usually a wide field refractor piggybacked on my SCT or a small
standalone wide-field like the StarBlast. I’ve actually even used these instruments,
since they provide different capabilities than my CATs or my 12-inch Dobsonian.
The times I’ve taken a second telescope that didn’t do as good a job of of that, of supplementing the main rig, the secondary telescope has sat unused for the whole event.

Accessories

Take what you will need and use, nothing more. If you
haven’t used your binoviewer in ten years, I think you can safely leave it at
home. If you’re not sure what all you
need, I strongly suggest you conduct a backyard observing run viewing the same
sorts of objects you plan to observe at the star party. Even if you can’t see
them very well from the back forty, this should give you an idea of the
specific gear you need…eyepieces…adapters…diagonals…etc., etc.

Before leaving home, double-check your accessory box (I use a big Plano fishing tackle box despite not knowing a spinning reel from a purple worm) to make sure all the items you’ll need are in it. I tend to use things at home in the backyard and then fail to put them back in the Plano. Triple check. Leave your red flashlight behind? A vendor at the star party can help you. Forget the
SCT’s visual back? Might not be quite as easy to find one on the dealers’
tables (if there are dealers; they are becoming an endangered species at star
parties). The IR filter you use in your camera? Uh-oh.

Batteries

Certainly you should take along plenty of Ds, Cs, AAs, and
AAAs for whatever you have in your inventory that might need them, but I am
specifically talking about 12-volt batteries to run telescopes, cameras, computers,
and dew heaters. Yes, most star parties have some 120-volt AC available (don’t forget to take your extension
cords and power strips), and if it is available I will run all my gear on it,
but don’t expect it to be available. Sometimes
there aren’t enough outlets for everybody, and if you are not among the first
folks on the field you will get caught out. Take batteries (and chargers)
sufficient to run everything and plan to run off batteries.

Ancillary Items

These are things that are not quite astronomy-gear per-se, not
telescopes or eyepieces or cameras, but which are still vital to your
observing. An observing chair is at the top of the list. At a star party,
you’ll hopefully be observing for longer stretches than you do in the backyard
or at the club site, and you want to be comfortable so you can put in some hours. You’ll also need an observing table, something for your eyepiece case,
laptop, and charts. There are plenty of good, lightweight camping tables. Don’t
scrimp on quality or size. You’ll also want something to sit on in the daytime.
I favor inexpensive canvas folding camp chairs; you know, the ones that come in the nylon bags. Finally, and a biggie, is an
EZ-Up, a tent canopy. That will keep the Sun off your head in the daytime and
the dew off your head at night when you are not at the eyepiece. Ease of set up
is a must, with the original EZ-Up brand and the Coleman canopies being at the
top of my list in that regard.

Computer

Most of us use computerized charts even if we don’t run the
telescope with a computer. The laptop will also provide you with entertainment
during the day or on (horrors) cloudy nights. You can watch DVD movies with it and even check
up on Facebook on those blasted punk evenings if the star party site has wi-fi.
As with the scope, plan on running
the PC on batteries. The built in battery will not be enough, so pack a 12-volt
battery and an inverter just for the lappie.

Camping Gear

Before enumerating what you’ll need here, let’s discuss the larger
question “To tent camp or not to tent camp?” For the longest time, I eschewed
tents. If there was even a 3rd class motel nearby, I’d stay in that
motel. I'll still opt for a motel room if there’s a reasonably nice hostelry close at hand like a
Holiday Inn Express or a Best Western. I have gotten tired of the el cheapos,
though—the Days Inns and the Quality Inns and their brethren. I now find I prefer a tent to spending 100 bucks a night and wondering whether the
bedbugs will bite.

There is a third path, of course, star party cabins. Whether
that is a better option for you than a tent depends on the star party. A tent is better than a bug infested chickie cabin, but there are events with not just
bearable but excellent housing. Again, it depends on the star party in question. Ask around at
the club and online as to the quality of the event’s accommodations and
judge whether they are superior to a tent for the price.

I prefer a tent sometimes, yeah, but it has to be the right tent. The right tent really has
one major attribute as far as I’m concerned:
you can stand up in it. If you can’t, you’ll get awfully tired of it in
a hurry, I’ve found. Whether changing clothes or just arranging the stuff under
the canvas, you need to be able to stand up to do those things comfortably. For
sure, get a bigger tent than you think you will need. For one or two
people, a five or six person tent, at a minimum, is good. Oh, you might be able
to make do with a pup tent for a night or two, but you won’t be very happy with
it.

Almost as important as size is ease of set up. Remember, the
tent will be but one element of your field setup along with the EZ-Up, the
telescope, the observing table, etc., etc., etc. You want a tent that’s easy to
pitch, even if you haven’t done it in a while. Especially if, like me, you
occasionally arrive on an observing field as the Sun is beginning to sink.
Luckily, there's no shortage of easy to pitch tent models these days and that doesn’t have to compromise their size or other features.

Which particular tent or at least tent brand? You certainly don’t
want to lowball it as low as you can go. BUT…you don’t have to spend for a tent
suitable for an Everest expedition either. If you’re like me, you’ll probably use the
tent two or three times a year at most, and something in the 150 – 200 dollar range is
more than adequate. Which brand specifically? What still does it for me is
good, old Coleman, and particularly their “Instant” series. While getting my
Coleman up isn’t exactly instant, it’s easy enough, especially considering that
it is a large cabin tent. At 150 bucks at Wally-World, one trip's use in lieu of a
Days Inn room more than paid for it.

What goes in the tent? Most of all, a sleeping bag. The main
consideration here is one that is warm enough, but not too warm. It’s not a bad
idea to have a couple of bags, one for spring/summer and one for fall/winter.
Check the forecast and use the one that is appropriate for the temperatures you
will face. Since, as with tents, it’s not necessary to buy one suitable for wilderness
expeditions, you can afford two without skimping too much on quality.

More important than the bag you choose, really, is what you
put it on. What do you not put it on?
The floor of the tent. Even with a pad, and even if you are young and hearty, the
hard and cold ground will soon make you feel lousy. Much better is an air
mattress—a real one, not an inflatable pool toy—but that’s still not good
enough for me. I find I am more comfortable with the sleeping bag on a
camp cot. I simply prefer being elevated off the ground. Cots that fold up and
take up little room in your vehicle are plentiful and cheap.

At the far end of star party season as December comes in,
it’s possible you’ll find your tent too cold. I encountered that in Florida,
believe it or not, last winter. The solution
is a heater for the tent. You have to be careful, of course; you don’t want the tent
(and you) to go down in flames. There are two alternatives. A catalytic heater
or an electric heater. Catalytic heaters, which run on the little Coleman
propane bottles, don’t have open flames so they are safe as far as fire goes.
They do consume oxygen, however, so you need to have some
ventilation. Many of the recent models will shut off or warn you if they detect
a low oxygen condition.

I use a catalytic heater under the EZ-Up, a Black Cat
(Coleman) heater specifically, but I tend to use an electric heater in the
tent. You need to exercise caution, sure, but electric models are available
that are safe. What you want is one that automatically shuts off if it is
tipped over. Never place it on the floor of the tent; only on a table. Do that and you should be good to
go. If you’re in a decent sleeping bag, a little electric heater can keep you reasonably comfortable despite a tent’s lack of insulation.

If you’re going to put the heater on a table, you need a
table. I’ve got a couple of the small aluminum folding jobs sold in the
outdoor departments of Wal-Mart, Academy, etc., and they work well in and out
of the tent for a variety of uses at star parties.

On the Field

OK, you’ve got your gear packed with the help of your
checklist and you are soon pulling onto that storied observing field. What
next? Where do you set up? How do you set up?

If you arrive early, you may have your pick of field
positions. If so, go for one that is, above all, level. A scope, especially a Dobsonian, is happier on reasonably level ground, and your tent will be more comfortable if the
floor is flat. Horizon? Depends on you. If I’ve got my choice of spots and one
horizon is better from a particular field position than others (often
because of the tree line on the edge of the field), I tend to pick a spot with
a good view to the east, since it’s fun to do the "new" stuff on the rise.

So, you pick your spot and assemble the telescope, the EZ-Up,
and the tent. That’s, by the way, the order in which I do things. If I am running
late, especially, the telescope is the number one priority. Get that put together, and I
can observe and if necessary sleep in my vehicle on the first night. How exactly do
you arrange your gear on the field? However you like as long as you don’t take
up more than your share of space.

At some star parties, you can have as much room as you want, but
due to crowding at the more popular events, rules often restrict you. How
will you know? In these cases you’ll usually find the organizers have marked
off field spots in some fashion. Anyway, I like to set my tent up next to the
EZ-Up and the telescope if that is permitted. Be aware that at some events a
tent on the observing field is a no-no. At a few of the largest and most crowded star
parties you cannot even have an EZ-Up on the field. Check the rules before you
arrive.

Once set up is done, you are likely going to be feeling a
bit peckish. What do you do about food? If there’s a meal plan available, I
invariably sign up for it. Star party food varies in quality, naturally, but
I’ve never been to an event in all my years as an amateur where the food was completely inedible. It’s also usually cheaper to do the meal plan than eat at
area restaurants, if any are available. Finally, it's fun to take your meals
with your fellow amateurs. Some of my best star party memories are of fun and food
with my compadres. If you want star party food, sign up in advance. Usually you
can’t opt for the meal plan after you arrive (“Hmmm….the grub looks pretty good
after all!”).

No meals and no restaurants? You can always cook on the
field. I’ve done that a time or two, and as long as there is water available
for cooking and cleaning—and it would really be a primitive affair if there
weren’t—it’s not bad. There are various strategies from MREs to electric
hotplates, but my advice is to just invest in a familiar Coleman camp stove.

Or not so familiar. Camp stoves are better than they
used to be. Most feature electric start, and the nasty "white gas" they used to
burn has been replaced by the same convenient small propane cylinders catalytic heaters use. You can get as fancy as you want, but I am good with a
simple two-burner stove to heat soup, chili, and similar. I can exist on that
for a few days , no problem. Back in my former life where I allowed myself to
eat such things, I always had plenty of chips, cookies, etc. to supplement the
canned fare. Today? Can of soup or Dinty Moore or Chef Boyardee spaghetti. Maybe a granola bar or some unsalted
peanuts for late night snacking and I am happy enough. Really.

What can make you tireder in the
middle of the night than you should be? Dehydration. Bring plenty of bottled water (and maybe ice and an ice chest, too, if the weather is warm) with you and drink it frequently. I also find sports drinks to be efficacious. Tea
and coffee have their place, too. And I’ll still drink a (low carb) energy drink
when I need a boost. What is one thing I look askance at on the field? Alcohol.
It ruins your night vision, and at a few star parties I’ve attended over the years it’s
caused no end of trouble thanks to a few folks who didn't know when to say
when. Save the booze for after the run is finished and don't annoy your friends if you've had a snoot full.

Scope, tent, and EZ-Up are good to go. Your stomach is no
longer rumbling. What’s next? You tour the field and hang out with and schmooze
with your fellow amateurs. When evening comes, you observe like crazy for as
long as you can go. When you are done, you cover the scope with a Desert
Storm (mylar) style cover or similar scope cover, shut off the computer and
whatever else you’ve got running, and head to the tent or cabin or motel. I
mention this because some newbies are unsure what to do with the telescope at the end of the evening.
Take it down each night just like at home and stow it in the car? That is not
necessary at any star party I’ve ever attended and is one of the beauties of a
multi-day event. Cover scope, go to bed, uncover scope the
next night, observe again.

Finally? Your star party won’t always be perfect. You’ll
usually forget something no matter how careful you are, and the scope or some
other piece of gear will invariably suffer some sort of hiccup. But I think you
will find that even a slightly problematic star party is way more fun than
sitting home, and will furnish you with some of the best memories you’ll have
in your amateur astronomy career. If this season is your first fall star party
season, all I can say is, “I envy you.” In a way you don’t know what amateur
astronomy is really all about until you attend your first big one. Have fun.

Sunday, October 04, 2015

Of Thises and Thats…

Rod at the PAS

It’s a mixed bag this week, friends. This is the calm
before the storm, I suppose, here on the cusp of yet another fall star
party season. That begins for me in a couple of weeks with the legendary Peach State Star Gaze. I’m sure looking forward to
observing and speaking at that one, since I haven’t been to a PSSG in over a
dozen years, not since the event was at its former home in Copperhill,
Tennessee. I have high hopes for the current venue, the Deerlick Astronomy
Village, which is not only much closer to me, but is, I suspect, darker than the old site was.

Next on the calendar after Peach State is our “home" star party, the Deep South Regional Stargaze, now,
almost unbelievably, in its 33rd edition. Rain or shine, we return
to this one every single year like swallows to Capistrano. I’ve missed exactly
one Deep South since 1993, that was due to work, and I am still mad about it.

I’ll wrap things up for fall the week after DSRSG with the brand
new Chiefland Star Party. Those of you who have visited the Chiefland
Astronomy Village will not be surprised to learn that the star party—which, in
its renewed form is, I believe, gonna be big—is somewhat video-centric, but
“video,” or maybe more properly “electronically enhanced observing,” covers a
lot of territory and a lot of methods these days. Anyhow, no matter how you
observe, you will be more than welcome at this new event.

But what’s going on now?
This past week it was a visit to New Orleans to address the Pontchartrain Astronomical Society. I was pleased
to be invited to give a talk for this fine old club, and since the
drive to NOLA is an easy 2.5 hours and we’d be staying in a motel I'd passed
a hundred times on my way to the Avondale Shipyards during my pre-retirement life
as an engineer, I thought the trip would be “all fun, no stress.”

SP C8...

And so it was. We were picked up at the motel
by PAS President (and DSRSG Managing Director) Barry Simon, taken to the venue
at the University of New Orleans, and, after the meeting wound up, conveyed to
the excellent Bobby Hebert’s Cajun Cannonfor fun and food after. The talk? While it was a new one, “Amateur Astronomy
the Old Fashioned Way,” which I’d only given once before at this year’s AHSP,
it went smoothly and my audience seemed to enjoy it. All in all a great
experience and one I’d be happy to repeat.

Next on my agenda, on this past Wednesday, was getting a C8
ready to sell. Why am I selling one of my beloved 8-inch SCTs? There are several reasons,
personal and practical, but one important one is that I have come to hate the
idea of equipment sitting around unused. This particular C8 and the CG5 mount I
have it on, which I am also selling, could be making a young amateur or a
cash-strapped amateur happy instead of just collecting dust sitting on the
floor of my shop. I’d tested my CG5 week before last and given it a clean bill of health;
now it was time to look at that old OTA.

The C8 in question came to me for basically nothing since it
was a problem case. As is not unusual
for older scopes, the primary cell was loose in the corrector. So loose that it
was difficult to collimate; when you tried to adjust a screw, the whole
secondary rotated. If this were a Meade, it would have been easy to fix. Just
remove corrector and tighten the secondary baffle, which screws onto the
secondary housing and holds it in place against the corrector plate.
Unfortunately, Celestron has usually glued rather than screwed the baffle in
place, and that was certainly the case with this 1987 vintage OTA (originally a
Super Polaris C8).

I removed the
corrector and gave the baffle an experimental twist while holding onto the
secondary housing. Didn’t even begin to budge. You can read the full story here, but the gist is that I put corrector/secondary
in the freezer and after several freezing/warming cycles was able to break the
baffle free and re-glue it. After the repair, I used the scope to shoot some
pictures of C8 disassembly for my book Choosing and Using a New CAT, and that was it
for the poor old thing. I did take it to a couple of public outreach events, but
I eventually put it in a case and forgot about it.

So, I resolved the C8 like the CG5 needed to go. I
didn’t and don’t intend to give the pair away, but I settled on a reasonable
price, if not quite as reasonable as
I’d hoped. The OTA lacked the Vixen dovetail it needed for mounting on the CG5 (the original SP
dovetail rig had disappeared long before the scope came to me). Unfortunately,
it appeared my sources of inexpensive dovetail brackets had dried up. Best price
I could get was on one from ADM for around 80 bucks shipped. But that was a
good thing. Their gear is top notch and when I received the beautifully
machined thing, it was the job of a mere five minutes to install it. I’ve had cheaply
made dovetails that required not just furnishing my own mounting screws
(everything is included with the ADM), but elongating screw holes with a drill,
etc., etc.

ADM make some sweet stuff...

My backyard outing had one more purpose: I wanted to check
out Synta’s latest firmware for the Atlas EQ6, v3.37. I’d loaded it up some
weeks before but hadn’t had a chance to test it under the stars. I was curious to see if it
would work correctly, since some users had reported serious problems when using
it with early mounts (my Atlasis eight years old).

When darkness fell, I was ready to go. I’d mounted the old
C8 on the Atlas earlier, and I had to admit the result looked very nice.
Flipped on the mount’s power, and immediately received the double beep that
spells trouble along with a warning message, “Caution, alt/dec, no response.” Annoying, sure, but the message had no effect
on operation. Either continuing past it to the setup menu with Enter, or just cycling
the power got me going. I assume this minor incompatibility comes from the firmware
needing to work with the newer alt/az-EQ Synscan mounts.

Anyhow, the accuracy of gotos and the built-in “AllStar”
polar alignment routine was very good. It’s still wise to reject alignment
stars the HC suggests that are lower than 30-degrees, but usually just accepting
those offered by the HC is now good enough. The mount reliably placed
anything from one side of the sky to the other in the field of my 13mm Ethos at
f/10 (156X). That is more than adequate for a mount I use only for the prime focus
imaging of a few targets a night—no 100 object Mallincam runs.

The telescope? I pointed at Polaris and checked the
collimation. A little out. I spent more time than I should have tweaking it in,
but I haven’t done much collimating recently; my scopes just haven’t needed it.
Otherwise? Despite its Halley’s Comet era vintage, the telescope presented good
images. The focus is nice and easy as is the norm with Celestrons of that era,
and I prefer it to the stiffer focus feel of modern OTAs. It has some other
nice features, too. Its built in piggyback camera mount is cool, and the wacky
flexible plastic handle actually makes it easier to mount the telescope a GEM.

Looking good!

The excellent appearance of the large handful of DSOs I observed before
mosquitoes drove me inside to view Fear
the Walking Dead on on-demand almost
made me reluctant to sell the old warhorse.

The next night, since the C8 and Atlas EQ6 were still set up
in the backyard, I decided I might do some more short-sub imaging, but maybe
kick things up a notch. Yes, you can get nice subs of brighter objects at 15 -
30-seconds, but they will never result in final pictures that look as smooth
and dense as what you can get with longer sub-frames. A stack of 20
90-second shots will always beat a stack of 50 20-second ones.

The only problem there? The Atlas is a fine mount given its
modest price. Its goto with the latest iteration of the SynScan firmware is, as
above, quite good and its tracking is sweet for such an inexpensive GEM. Still, at
a minute of exposure you will begin throwing out frames at 1300 – 1400mm of
focal length. Especially if, like me, you don’t like doing drift polar
alignments. Bottom line? This is the point where you gotta guide. But as I said some time back, if you keep exposure
and focal length at reasonable values, guiding doesn’t have to be tough; it can
actually be easy to do.

For me, "easy" is spelled “mini-guide-scope.” You know, one
of Orion’s (or KW Telescope's) 50mm guide scopes, which are essentially modified
finders. I intended to couple that with my good old Orion StarShoot auto-guider
camera. This monochrome CMOS cam is not exactly sensitive, and it is hopeless
in an off-axis-guider, but in the 50mm guidescope it does get the job done. The
wide field of the 50mm guide scope means you always have several good guide star candidates in the field.

I mounted the mini-guider on the C8, my old 1995 Ultima OTA,
Celeste on this evening. I changed out OTAs simply because Celeste is set up
for a JMI Motofocus, which makes getting bang-on focus simple. She’s also got
the requisite mounting base for the Orion mini-guider, which the SPC8 OTA does
not. So, I was all set. Oughta be simple.
Hah! It never is with me.

M27...

The first problem was the old (and cheap) prime focus
adapter I was using. The threads were rough and coarse, and it was tough to get
the camera screwed onto the 6.3 reducer corrector. In the course of trying to
get the Canon tight enough so it would not rotate on its own, I managed to unthread
the adapter ring that is screwed onto the end of the baffle tube on a C8. This
threaded ring forms the telescope’s rear port to which you attach diagonals,
visual backs, camera adapters, and everything else and is normally never, ever
removed from the scope. Well, it sure was removed now, threaded up inside the
reducer/corrector and absolutely impossible to unscrew from it.

What to do? Nothing for it. I shut down the mount, removed
the scope from the saddle, and carried it into the Sun Room. There, by screwing
the now combined reducer and the rear-port ring back onto the C8 and tightening
them down like the Incredible Hulk, I was finally able to undo the
reducer/corrector while leaving the adapter ring in place. To prevent a
recurrence, I added a little lube to the r/c’s threads. If I have further
problems with the adapter ring, I’ll apply Loctite, but I believe it is OK now.
One smart thing I did the first thing the next morning was order a new SCT
prime focus adapter. I do try to learn from my foul-ups.

I was now hot and bothered even in the cool October air, but
I managed to get the C8 back on the Atlas and realign the mount. My problems
were not quite over yet, though. In the process of getting the laptop working,
I obviously did a Bad Thing. What, I don’t know exactly, but it required a
reboot of the computer, which then, NATURALLY, decided it wanted to spend ten
minutes updating—and I thought that was not supposed to happen with Windows 10.
Sigh.

Once everything was finally squared away, I was frankly
weary about ready to throw in the old towel, but I wanted to at least see how
well the latest rev of the fantastic PHD2
would guide the Atlas. Where to start? The sky, which had begun the evening
cloudy, cleared, clouded over again, and then cleared once more, somewhat anyway, didn’t look promising.
Have to be something bright. M13 was getting low as 10 p.m. approached, but it
would be good enough, I thought.

Two things that gave me no
trouble on this night? PHD2 and the Atlas. I got the guide program running,
clicked on one of the stars the StarShoot picked up, and PHD calibrated and
just guided. As always, it simply locked
on and I had no occasion to worry about trailed stars in my 90-second
exposures. I settled on 90-seconds as a means of checking the guide quality of
PHD, but that was actually on the long side given the light scatter from increasing haze and the presence of a rising gibbous Moon in the east.

"UFOs: The Phenomenon"...

I could tell the subs appearing on my screen were at least
OK, if not as good as the shorter ones I’d done with the C11 the week before
last. The sky was just too nasty on this evening and M13 just too low. After
the sequence (which I did with Nebulosity 3,
natch) finished, I went on to M27, which was still good and high, and fired off
twenty more 90-second subs. While they looked better than those of M13, they
still weren’t much. The sky was getting worse and worse and the Moon higher and
higher.

I still intended to do one more after the Dumbbell, maybe
M15, but there really wasn’t much point to it. The sky had now gone south in a
big way and I’d already done what I’d intended to do, further check the Atlas’ firmware
and also test the new PHD release. It was, honestly, time to pull that Big Switch. I was still reluctant
to do so since the sky was still semi-clear, but in the end the decision was
made for me when the Canon’s battery died. I parked the Atlas and headed
inside.

The next morning, I set to work on the subs. While the
longer exposures made them easier to process in some ways, the gradients caused
by the light pollution/haze and the Moon added to the difficulty of processing
and were made worse by longer subs.
As always, “TANSTAAFL.” When I finished, though, I had to admit that the
results I’d got on such a punk evening were probably better I could have gotten
with unguided 15 – 30-second subs under the same conditions.

Last but not least? An unvarying fixture of our autumn each year is visiting
Pensacola, Florida and the Escambia Amateur Astronomers’ Association for my old friend
“Doc” Clay (Mr. Meade, Mr. LX200, Mr. Arkansas Sky Observatory) Sherrod’s annual lecture. Not only was this year's talk, "UFOs: The Phenomenon," very interesting, it was great to spend a little time with Clay and wife Patsy. The venue at Pensacola State College was excellent, the audience enthusiastic, and the EAAA members out-of-their-way friendly to us visiting amateurs. Doesn't get much better.